Alex Singleton is part of the Daily Telegraph's leader-writing team and is a contributing editor at the Sunday Telegraph. You can visit his personal site and follow him on Twitter.

Politicians should stop interfering with redundancies at Lloyds TSB-HBOS

No one likes redundancies. But if Lloyds TSB, once it has taken over HBOS, is to be economically responsible, it needs to cut the headcount in the enlarged group. Frankly, there's been enough irresponsibility in the sector already. Decisions about who is made redundant should be made according to what will be most profitable.

Unfortunately, politicians are now trying to lobby Lloyds TSB in the hope the bank will make its cuts, not according to what the spreadsheets say, but according to which geographical places that will hurt particular politicians the least politically.

The Scots running our Government lobbied for Scotland to be spared the worst of the cuts (the politics of which are covered here by Iain Martin). Needless to say, those working in HBOS's Halifax offices are unhappy with this approach.

The local MP, Linda Riordan, says it is "total unacceptable" for Scottish HBOS jobs to be preserved at the expense of those in Yorkshire and wants the same assurances that Scotland seems to have secured.

But at least the politicians I've heard seem to accept that compulsory redundancies will be necessary – they just don't want them where they are trying to secure votes. The trade union Unite, on the other hand, opposes all compulsory redundancies at the new bank. Have unions always been this potty or is it something new?